A Herd of Deer
by Songja
Summary: One shot fluffy SakuraShikamaru.


Disclaimer: Naruto, the world and characters, does not belong to me. No money is made, no infringement is meant.

"Would you like someone to walk you home? It's late and you've been here for a double shift." One of the male orderlies asked Sakura politely as she hung up her medical coat in the locker room.

Truly, she was exhausted. She had been at the hospital for more than a double shift. She was well into her third with only a quick cat nap in her office once her last emergency patient had stabilized. "No, I'm fine. I think I still have enough energy to get home," she replied with a kind smile. She left the locker room saying goodnight to the other staff members.

It was still dark outside the hospital, although the sun would be up in a few hours. She sent a message to Shizune that she would be in late and any notes that the Hokage and her assistant might need to know about the cases that had come in the day before. How truly horrific that was.

Three teams had come in, two with serious injuries and one with critical wounds. A small town had been attacked by grass ninja and while they were fought off. It was decided that with the medic-nin assigned to that team injured, and only an elderly local doctor available, anyone with any kind of real injury should go to the hospital in Konoha. The critical came in right as her first shift was ending with a flood of villagers.

As soon as she could, she had to hand off the critical patient to another medic-nin so that she could treat the second incoming team for poison. The third team had come in and the already harassed hospital staff was stretched so thin, that Sakura retrenched and continued to sort out the injured.

Finally, after things had calmed down, she had been ordered by the head of the hospital to go home. He had completely missed that fact that she had been there for almost thirty-sis hours straight and was appalled that she seemed willing to stay longer. She only left when the older man had begged saying that he didn't want any trouble from the Hokage when she found out that her student had been at the hospital working straight through three shifts. He was already going to be in trouble for the two and a half.

Sakura had smiled at the kindly older doctor and consented to go home. She closed her eyes, dredged up the last bits of chakra available to her and took off over the rooftops, a blur of red dress and pink hair. She waved at a few ninja patrols that were on the rooftops, ever vigilant over the city and sighed in contentment as she saw the doors of her home.

Landing on the front lawn, however, Sakura closed her eyes in relief. She had pushed herself a little too hard to get home, she decided. It was this exhaustion she blamed, later, for completely missing her attacker. She was suddenly thrust forward as she was pushed and two hard weapons dug into her back. She let out a startled cry, jumping and spinning with a kunai in hand to come face to face with. . .a deer?

Confused and a little disoriented by the rush of adrenaline now coursing through her system, Sakura drew back with a wild look in her eyes as her front yard seemed to come alive and twenty or so heads swung towards her and started advancing. Never was she so grateful to hear the wood door slide open and a voice ask, "Sakura?"

"Shikamaru!" the medic-nin turned and threw herself into her husband's arms. Pushing his wife behind him and into the house, he armed himself and frantically scanned the front yard for whoever made his wife cry out. It took him a moment to realize that his wife's gasps had quickly bubbled into laughter and she had lost her balance and toppled to the floor, she was laughing so hard.

Figuring that there was no danger, Shikamaru closed the door and looked at his wife, now wiping the tears of laughter from her eyes. "Sakura?" he asked gently. He knew she had a rough night. He had come in with the second group of ninja and was in the Hokage's office reporting when the third group came in. "Sakura, are you o.k.?"

"Shika," she said through her spurts of laughter, "I was attacked by a deer." She started laughing again until she had to lie on the floor looking up at him with a goofy grin on her face.

Shikamaru shook his head at his wife, although a gentle smile curved over his face, "Tch, troublesome," he muttered as he knelt down and scooped his wife up in his arms. "Shame on you," he muttered as he carried her to their bedroom, "A special medical jonin and former ANBU member letting a deer get the better of her. Now we have to increase your training. How troublesome."

Sakura giggled again as she melted into his arms and felt him kiss her on the top of her head, "Anata, why are all the deer in our front yard?" Although the Nara family traditionally tended the Konoha herd, more often than not, the deer stayed to the fields outside the family compound.

"Your troublesome son missed you and didn't want to go to sleep alone, so he and his sister kidnapped the four month old fawn and the mother deer and the herd followed."

Sakura laughed softly as Shikamaru left her standing next to their bed. He efficiently stripped her of her work clothes and slipped her into a sleeping yukata. She crawled into the bed and Shikamaru crawled in after her.

"So our son and daughter have a four month old deer sleeping in the room with them?" Sakura asked sleepily, "And you let them?" Shikamaru grunted. It was easier giving into his children than fighting to get them into bed. He just couldn't be bothered, most of the time. Now he knew why his dad had married a forceful, nagging woman. If he hadn't married Sakura, his children would be running wild left to their own devices. Sakura kept them in line.

"Well," Sakura said, although she sounded more sleepy than firm, "If that fawn makes a mess of their room, you are the one that has to clean it up. Not to mention the front yard. If those deer got into my flower garden." Another grunt from Shikamaru and he rolled over trying to ignore her and go to sleep. Sakura just shifted over to snuggle against his back. As she slipped an arm around him, she muttered before falling asleep, "And you told Kiba that a little puppy would be too troublesome. Now you have to deal with cleaning up after a herd of deer."


End file.
